Environmental and Urban Economics

Tesla Motors produces electric vehicles. Yesterday, it had its IPO and its current market share price is higher than expected . While I have never written a "finance paper", this case study offers a great opportunity for environmental economists to conduct some simple "event study" before/after comparisons;

Some Questions:

1.

As you may recall, I have written a pretty good paper analyzing voting patterns on California's environmental initiatives (see Kahn and Matsusaka 1997 ). So, given that I'm a self proclaimed expert on this stuff --- I must ask that you vote "No" on Proposition 23 in November 2010.

This proposition would gut AB32.

I've now realized that nobody will like my forthcoming book (Basic Books September 2010) titled climatopolis . The Right Wing of the political spectrum will be unhappy that I believe the climate science that climate change could be a real threat to our society (if we don't change our ways). The Left Wing will be unhappy that I argue that free market capitalism and individual rational choice will allow us continue to thrive as climate change unfolds.

Time flies. For a quick proof, you can read this nerdy article about the making of the 1980 hit movie Airplane. "Do you like gladiator movies?" As a 14 year old, I think I knew that the pilot was a strange dude.

For a second piece of evidence, consider Han Solo from Star Wars. My son has watched Star Wars Movies 4-6 at least 5 times each but when my wife showed him a photo of Harrison Ford and his recent marriage as reported in People Magazine --- my son had no idea who "the old dude" was.

Imagine a place where your Blackberry doesn't work and you don't care. A place with 1700 year old redwood trees that even your 9 year old son thinks are pretty cool. This place exists. It is called Sequoia National Park . I now know more about central California than I thought I would ever know. I'm also now a fan of the Fresno Bee. Things change.

I saw the world's biggest tree (General Sherman), we saw bears, lizards, and some fast moving rapids.

It is clear that Publishers Weekly is not a big fan of my work. I sense an ideological bent to the short review below. My book made this reviewer angry but he/she doesn't explain why. Part of me is pleased by this response. I've hit a nerve!

Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future.

Matthew E. Kahn, Basic, $26.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-465-01926-7

"Kahn (Green Cities) takes a sanguine look at how cities will fare under climate change.

In January 2010, I had the honor of giving a speech at the UCSB Bren School. I'm not sure if I was the most dignified guest but I had a great time and made many new friends.

I believe in teaching by counter-example. If you'd like to see how not to give a big think talk on how our cities will cope with climate change, watch this .

The Song Remains the Same. The members of Led Zeppelin were wiser than we thought. Today, young men in Beijing and Shanghai are finding that they cannot afford to buy a tiny apartment . Their girlfriends are dumping them unless they can buy a car and an apartment. Is life fair? As the ratio of young men/young women goes to infinity in China this marriage market is growing tough.

I'm hoping that Peter Gordon and Ed Glaeser will join me in endorsing spending government billions so that I could have the option of taking a fast train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas . Some policies just feel like a "free lunch" and this would appear to be classic example. If anyone would like to join me in taking out an adverstisement in the newspaper, we could all co-sign it and demonstrate our united front as we create "green jobs" and improve transit access for my part of the country.

There are costs and benefits of using chemicals for growing food such as California strawberries.

There are risk costs of using Methyl Iodide;

"“I’m not in blanket opposition to the use of pesticides, but methyl iodide alarms me,” said Theodore A. Slotkin, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center and a member of the scientific review committee.